Dealing with Clinkz

It seems only recently we were asking a question of “Why does no one play Clinkz?” and… we are sorry. In an attempt to make the hero more viable in the professional scene, Valve has created one of the most powerful pubstompers in the game, who is currently terrorizing matches of all skill levels.

Get ahead in lane

Clinkz is not a terrible laner. Much like Silencer, access to Searing Arrows allows him to harass the enemy without drawing aggro, while the extended attack range helps with his squishiness.

That said, he is extremely reliant on Searing Arrows to get last hits, since he starts the game with 40 attack damage. That means that he theoretically shouldn’t be able to deny any creeps, if he wants to last hit any creeps in the first wave he needs to forgo both his defensive abilities and that his harass damage is not going to be overwhelming.

Considering all this, playing aggressively against Clinkz at the start of the laning stage is preferable. If your heroes allow for it, and you really should go for strong lanes in the current meta, do your best to both zone out Clinkz and get as many denies as possible. Given his attack damage, Clinkz likely won’t be able to consistently deny his own creeps, especially under pressure. Prioritize denying your own creeps, rather than getting last hits, since it will allow you to get most XP in lane, while starving out Clinkz.

Ideally, you want a significant level advantage over Clinkz at the early stages of the game. The hero can’t farm jungle or quickly push waves and most of his economy relies on getting kills in the early midgame. Deny him this opportunity and you will have a massive timing window, where your teamfight is going to be overwhelmingly more powerful.

Play as a team

Clinkz preys on solo targets and split-pushing lineups, while his teamfight potential is very limited at all stages of the game. Grouping up early, taking and defending objectives and generally playing as a team is the most important aspect of countering Clinkz.

It is easy to say all that, but in reality pubs are extremely unpredictable, players frequently pick whatever they feel like playing, rather than what suits the team best and coordination is almost non-existent. Try your best to change that.

When playing support, stick to your most vulnerable carry and do your best to protect him. That means wards, close positioning and willingness to sacrifice yourself to save your teammate. Constantly following allied Anti-Mage around the map, staying in the jungle out of XP range and still getting flamed for “feeding” is not the most engaging gameplay, but it has to be done.

When playing a core, you will be mostly responsible for team movements in the second half of the game. Your team relies on you, for the most part it will want to follow you and you have to be mindful of that. Even when playing heroes who rely on getting pickoffs, try to stay relatively close to your teammates when playing against Clinkz. With proper items Clinkz’s damage output on a solo target is almost unparalleled, so don’t give him unnecessary opportunities.

Itemize Properly

There are two main Clinkz builds—one revolving around Orchid Malevolence and Nullifier, one around an early Scythe of Vyse. Very little can be done about the latter, especially by a support. The former, while providing higher DPS and being more popular, can be countered with several items.

Support items

As a support, If you see enemy Clinkz going Orchid it means that you should be trying to get at least some form of dispel as soon as possible. Early Eul’s works very well, but if you can afford it going for Lotus Orb is probably a better deal.

This type of Clinkz heavily relies on being able to burst down an enemy core with an Orchid, Nullifier, Strafe combo and preventing it means he just wasted several cooldowns and can’t find properly for at least another 20 seconds. Lotus Orb fully dispels Nullifier mute and Orchid silence, allowing your teammate to retaliate or escape.

It is worth noting that very late into the game, once Clinkz is level 25, it is actually better to use Eul’s on Clinkz, rather than to save yourself. If done fast enough it prevents a lot of damage and also fully dispels the long Strafe buff. If your micro allows for it, you can also go for Necronomicon 3, as it gives you both the necessary True Sight and another source of non-projectile based dispel.

Glimmer Cape is also an option, but the problem with the item is that when taking into account reaction time and fade delay, there is a chance Clinkz will be able to deal enough damage to kill a squishy target. It also doesn’t mitigate most of the damage from Clinkz if he has True Sight—at best you will be reducing the Orchid Soul Burn damage.

Core items

As a carry, having at least one defensive item is a must. Linken's Sphere is good against Scythe Clinkz and helps a great deal against Orchid+Nullifier one. An early Black King Bar can also be quite decent, but not necessarily as a way of countering Clinkz specifically, but as a way of ending game earlier. Manta Style is also great against Clinkzs in lower-level games which frequently silence first and use Nullifier second from high range, allowing you to react to silence with Manta dispel, while also disjointing the Nullifier mute projectile.

Finally, there is Aeon Disk, which many people like against Clinkz. While it is certainly helpful in the earlier stages of the game, a good Clinkz will most likely be vary of this item and will hold on to his Nullifier until after the Aeon proc. In a sense, it is a more passive Eul’s that can lose all of its defensive capabilities, while not offering an offensive one. If you can react quickly enough and your hero has access to cast range increasing talents or naturally builds into Aether Lens, Eul’s is a cheaper and more versatile alternative.

Closing Thoughts

Clinkz is a pubstomper hero that is still unlikely to be played professionally. Highest levels of play can exploit every single weakness of the hero and find ways of dealing with him and Clinkz has a lot of weaknesses.

The problem is that pub players are a lot less willing to adapt, improvise and coordinate, even in Divine+ rankings. Clinkz is not unfair, he can be dealt with—your whole team just has to be willing to play Dota as a team game.

The hero is currently in more than 10% of all our pub games and already players starting to react, accounting for his presence and being more willing to play as a unit. In a game of Dota there is very little you can do about the other four members of your team, but each of them still wants to win and if you are willing to cooperate, make sacrifices and keep your cool even if things go wrong, maybe they will be too.

Nullifier applies a mute, which only affects active item abilities. Combo Breaker (one of the best names in Dota) is a passive, as is Linkens. While it can be dispelled by Nullify, that requires Clinkz to apply enough damage to you to pop it, then dispel it. So it's still quite nice to have an Aeon Disk if you're prone to walking alone in the jungle, but if you stick together just a little more you won't have need for the item as there will always be a retalitory friend.

Keep in mind also that Combo Breaker has a somewhat long cooldown, and while active, you cannot inflict any damage. Ravage still stuns, but don't throw that Laguna Blade in a panic reaction to a Clinkz popping up.

"Constantly following allied Anti-Mage around the map, staying in the jungle out of XP range and still getting flamed for “feeding” is not the most engaging gameplay, but it has to be done."

Yeah cool, that is what I want to do with my free time, getting yelled at for an hour. I think DOTA should use that as an sales pitch for promotion.

Tired of games that keep the balance between pros and casual players? Do you want to get screamed at for an hour or longer? Do you want a game where your whole team needs to counter one single enemy hero and then loses to the rest of the enemy team? Play DOTA, today and it will be fun ... just not for you.

I think also Clinkz can be dealt with (as soon as he is stunned or hexed he is usually dead) and I deal with him on a daily base (as support or core). Nevertheless I think it is the strafe projectile evasion that seems a bit much for a lot of heroes (in particular projectile based stuns or nukes are pretty much worthless (poor Lion and Lina with their ults)).

"PLAY AS A TEAM" LOL
fucking icefrog buffed this hero to hell just to fit it in competitive area. coordinating is dead in solo ranked.
just played a game won mid as viper against clinkz and at min 15 mark could not do shit against him cuz he can dodge all shit even nullifier doesnt purge it. literally nightmare of ranged carrys.
its not like riki or bh who are not much of a threat early so proper warding is impossible.

about sticking with ur team thing? yea,rat doto its still exist,even if u stick with ur team the enemy team will bait ur team for a 5 v4 fight but the clinkz probably taking ur bot/top/mid toweres/barracks(unless u win the fight quickly and tp where the clinkz is)

He can actually work pretty decently as a position 4 in low mmr games after all the buffs. Kind of like support windranger, except instead of stun he compensates with higher dps and scouting potential even without many items.

also of note picking heroes with escapes and/or disables works well. Especially ones that don't mind building euls and things. Having heroes that clinkz can't just find and reliably kill early is a great way to slow him down.

Escape heroes are usually on their own and are pretty squishy though, so I don't know that I agree with you there, but the disables are definitely good. With Kawaiis suggestion of Euls and a disable you can turn the play on Clinkz. Kinda need disables on any team though so it's not particularly revelatory but it's certainly true.

very funny when once in a mid game a clinkz orchid my phoenix and I just halberd him, and we become a pair of useless hero, only I can give him auto attacks, it end in the matter of seconds of course, once orchid effect wears off I have the upper hand :D
Clinkz aware of this and fleeing beforehand...

Don’t try to counter clinkz with ranged carries. As the divine guy above mentioned, there’s so many counters to clinkz in lane that are popular firstpicks now, and a hero like blood seeker, which is a rather safe option this patch, shits on clinkz all game long. Yeah, it probably will pick off your lone supports in the jungle either way, but we played vs Slark for years, and somehow managed

The same could be said of Euls, and that serves more utility as it can be cast on allies and enemies as well. Ghost Scepter can only be applied to yourself and therefore only encourages a support to be alone more often. Once the Clinkz realizes you have Scepter he isn't likely to target you outside of fights, and if you are away from your core he is more likely to go for the tastier target.

tldr Ghost Scepter encourages poor counterplay and in the long run gives less bang for your buck on supports.

If you are a channeler I think you'll get more utility out of it though.

@MM.Ugh Brock Hall
but eul's is expensive for a support, ghost scepter is way cheaper.
If you're a pos5 you'll never get eul before sometime especially if there is a clinkz where you gotta buy sentry and dust.

If it was in the 850 range you might be able to save youself and retaliate before he gets orchid. Hoevever, once orchid is online you won't be receiving attacks, but you'll also be silenced so you can't retaliate, at which point you have removed yourself from the equation. I see what you're getting at, it certainly isn't wildly illogical or anything, but I still feel like positioning safer removes the necessity for the scepter. Sentries pay for themselves via dewards and kills, as well as dust, but it's not out of the question to split that responsibility in the current dual lane meta.

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